I can’t believe it’s almost two years since lovely Claire Baldry featured on Linda’s Book Bag with a smashing guest post about people and places when her novel Different Genes was released. You can read that post here.

Today I’m delighted to close the blog tour for Claire’s latest book with my review of My Daughter’s Wedding.

Published by Matador, My Daughter’s Wedding is available for purchase here.

My Daughter’s Wedding

When ‘bride to be’ and single parent, Charlotte, discovers that her 61-year-old widowed mother is in a new relationship, she struggles to come to terms with it. “Why do you need to have a man, at your age?” Charlotte asks, “Can’t you just be a grandma?”

The growing tension between mother and daughter combined with preparations for the wedding impact on both family and friends.

In this compelling and unashamedly romantic tale of finding love in later life, the experience of a young care-leaver who is tasked with making the wedding bouquet, is skilfully intertwined with the family’s – sometimes turbulent– preparations for a modern wedding.

My Review of My Daughter’s Wedding

Bridezilla Charlotte isn’t keen on her mother’s new man!

What a delight to have an older protagonist in Angie as the focus for My Daughter’s Wedding. So many stories feature only 30 something characters with older people maginalised that to have a real, older and successful, woman in a new relationship with an equally older man, Martin, was a real joy. Angie’s insecurities blended with her maturity and success made her all the more vivid. I think Charlotte’s unreasonable initial attitude to their developing coupledom illustrated perfectly the usual reluctance to feature those of middle age frequently enough. Bravo Claire Baldry I say!

Speaking of Charlotte, I thought she was spoilt and quite vile. Angie has far more patience with her daughter than I’d ever have and reading about Charlotte brought out the very worst in me. I’d have quite happily climbed into the pages of My Daughter’s Wedding and given her a large and loud piece of my mind. In contrast, I slightly fell in love with Martin myself as he is a real man, not some kind of plastic superhero that can all too easily seep into women’s fiction. Claire Baldry has created a cast of people who felt real, flawed and authentic.

I found My Daughter’s Wedding very entertaining because it felt so true to life. The wedding is the plot’s hook but there us plenty more on offer too with all life, and death, between the pages. I confess to feeling an initial jolt in the second part of the story when Carly is introduced as her narrative seemed totally disparate from Angie’s but it was a real pleasure to see how Claire Baldry brought the strands together as the book progressed.

My Daughter’s Wedding felt relevant, fresh and entertaining. I very much enjoyed reading it and I think anyone who has ever been involved in a family wedding might just find themselves represented between its pages! It’s a lovely read.

About Claire Baldry

In her hometown of Bexhill on Sea Claire Baldry is known as the local poet. She writes and performs lighthearted ‘Pam Ayres’ style poetry and donates the fees to charity. Her poems sometimes appear in the local paper or on local radio, and she is frequently invited to clubs, such as the WI, to read her work and talk about her writing. Earlier this year Claire and her husband Chris won the Diabetes UK South East Inspire Award for innovative ways of fundraising.

In 2016 Claire fulfilled a lifetime writing ambition and finally completed a novel. She describes it as an ‘easy read’ tale about love in later life, combined with a gripping mystery. The title of the book is Different Genes.

You can follow Claire on Twitter @ClaiBal and visit her website. You’ll also find Claire on Facebook.

There’s more with these other bloggers too: